gerikson

joined 2 years ago
[–] gerikson@awful.systems 5 points 2 weeks ago

Looks like LW/Lightcone managed to convince enough people to give then $2M, which will totally not be used to settle sexual assault lawsuits in the future.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not reading that shit but for the masochists out there who like to read HN licking VC boots, here ya go

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42682305

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 6 points 2 weeks ago

people in the Russian-speaking EA community are all busy with other things.

i.e. working for Putin, running from Putin, or dying for Putin

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 18 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah thought the same, "can't make it much worse"

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

LessWrongers find cool reception for translated HPMOR copies sent to Russia's highest IQ youth

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/onyiPaxnmiDdHn7SR/no-one-has-the-ball-on-1500-russian-olympiad-winners-who-ve

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 4 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah it's been decades since I read Rhodes' history about the atom bomb, so I missed the years a bit. My point is that even if we couldn't explain exactly what was happening there was something physically there, and we knew enough about it that Oppenheimer and co. could convince the US Army to build Oak Ridge and many other facilities at massive expense.

We can't say the same about "AI".

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah, my starting position would be that it was obvious to any competent physicist at the time (although there weren't that many) that the potential energy release from nuclear fission was a real thing - the "only" thing to do to weaponise it or use it for peaceful ends was engineering.

The analogy to "runaway X-risk AGI" is there's a similar straight line from ELIZA to Acausal Robot God, all that's required is a bit of elbow grease and good ole fashioned American ingenuity. But my point is that apart from Yud and a few others, no serious person believes this.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (8 children)

noodling on a blog post - does anyone with more experience of LW/EA than me know if "AI safety" people are referencing the invention of nuclear weapons as a template for regulating/forbidding "AGI"?

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago

Adderall will do that to a fellow

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I'm increasingly convinced that this person is in a dark place mentally, and am fighting an internal battle to keep poking them for the lulz or just ignoring them.

https://lobste.rs/s/lgqwje/does_current_ai_represent_dead_end#c_cyrxm4

(I've seen this behavior on lobste.rs before and I think sometimes people literally get banned for their own good)

Edit bored on a train so I did the math, in the comment thread, this user has made 30% of the comments by count and 20% by "volume" (basically number of bytes in the plaintext).

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 14 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Back when I was an undergrad I saw a letter addressed to the department from a German gentleman who claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine (this was the department of mechanics). I remember the letter being quite typographically florid and especially the author’s likeness in silhouette.

My advisor had fun finding the flaw in the proposal. Took a few minutes.

I often wondered if demolishing a PM suggestion would be a good extra credit question on an exam.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 3 weeks ago

He retweeted Ivanka praising him... 🤢

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